Legally using cannabis as a medicine is a lot easier now than it was 20 years ago. Thanks to changing viewpoints, state and local governments are embracing medical cannabis programs in record numbers. But there is a catch: medical cannabis laws stipulate that the drug be recommended by a doctor.
In most states, you need a doctor’s recommendation to apply for a medical cannabis card. That is certainly the case in Utah, though the Beehive State used to allow recommendation letters if patients didn’t want to apply for a card. Such is no longer the case. If you want to buy cannabis products from Park City’s Deseret Wellness for instance, you need to have a card.
States require patients to visit with a doctor in order to get their cards. The reasoning is simple: they do not want medical cannabis cards being given out like candy. They want them issued only to patients who need them. To that end, here are four things that doctors want to know before recommending cannabis for a patient:
The Patient’s Qualifying Condition
Every state with a medical cannabis program in place maintains a limited list of conditions for which the drug qualifies. Cancer and cancer pain are both on most state lists. So are seizure-related disorders, several forms of dementia, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Chronic insomnia is hit or miss. Some states list it as a qualifying condition; others do not.
Here is the point: a doctor must know the condition a patient suffers from before making a recommendation. If a patient’s condition is not on the qualifying list, recommending medical cannabis isn’t even a question.
How Long the Condition Has Existed
Next, doctors want to know how long the qualifying condition has existed. A good example is chronic pain. In order for pain to be truly chronic, it has to last for more than three months. Anything inside that window is not considered chronic. This makes a significant difference when applying for a medical cannabis card. If a patient’s pain is not chronic, it alone is not sufficient cause for recommending cannabis treatment.
Any Evidence Suggesting Cannabis Efficacy
A doctor ultimately has the task of deciding whether medical cannabis is the right way to treat a particular condition. So in addition to knowing the condition and how long it has existed, a doctor will want to know of any evidence suggesting cannabis efficacy. There is no point in recommending cannabis if a doctor believes it’s not going to help.
This particular issue is sticky when it comes to certain qualifying conditions. Take chronic pain, once again. There is growing evidence that cannabis doesn’t actually alleviate pain but, rather, just makes it easier to bear. Is that sufficient reason to recommend it?
If There Are Better Ways to Treat the Condition
Finally, doctors have to assess cannabis in terms of whether it is the best possible way to treat the patient’s condition. There may be other ways to treat it, but is cannabis the best among them? And if not, what other treatment options should be recommended in its place?
Recommending medical cannabis is not as easy as it sounds. Not only is the whole concept comparatively new, but doctors are not trained in the human endocannabinoid system. In fact, it is something they barely address in medical school. Combine that with the fact that there is still a lot about cannabis we do not know, and you end up with a situation in which recommending cannabis can be incredibly tough. That’s why doctors want to know so much.
